One Hour
by Arikae
Summary: Episode Tag to One Hour (S03E17). Colby was injured during the take down of Duque but nobody knew how bad it was and Don feels bad about not being there for the team.


**Author's note: This story is for Naggingcube. She asked for a tag to the episode One Hour (S03E17). I loved this episode. It was definitely one of my favourites. I've always wanted to write a story based on this episode but it's such a good episode I didn't want to ruin it. Anyway, here it is. I didn't really change anything in the episode until Colby reaches Disney Hall. Also, I'm pretty sure it's hard to get shot and not notice but this is my fan fiction so anything can happen as long as it fits in with my story :D Hope you like it.**

 **Also, I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading, reviewing and/or favouriting my stories. I love writing them and receiving the feedback.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.**

 **Warning: un-betaed.**

Colby Granger grabbed Jo Santiago and covered him as best he could as he made his way to the side door. Nacio Duque had a rifle trained on them and the boy had no protection. They were so close to getting Jo home to his father he couldn't let something happen to him now. David and Liz were out there somewhere. He trusted them to watch his back.

* * *

Duque had Colby lined up for a shot. One shot and the FBI Agent would drop dead. Once he was down, he could take away the one important thing in Santiago's life…his son. Duque put pressure on the trigger. "Good bye, FBI."

"FBI!" The call from behind him made him jump but it didn't stop him pulling the trigger. He quickly removed his hands from the rifle, raising them. "You son of a bitch!" David cursed as he grabbed the man and shoved him against the railings, pulling his hands behind his back. He looked down to where his partner was and saw Colby on the floor of the stage, not moving. "COLBY!" _Please don't let me be too late._

* * *

Colby felt the impact of the bullet impact against his left shoulder blade. It threw him forward, slamming him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him. He couldn't get his lungs to work. He couldn't take in a breath. Despite this, he kept his arms around Jo, protecting him from further shots. "COLBY!" _David._

* * *

Liz Warner entered the room just as the shot went off. She watched in horror as Colby was thrown forward on top of the boy. Her first reaction was to run to him but she had a responsibility to the agents she came with. She gestured to the agents to retreat back to door. "COLBY!" Liz looked out and up at where the call came from. She let out a breath of relief, seeing the shooter detained by David. A harsh coughing from the ground drew her attention. It was Colby. Another breath of relief. Liz holstered her gun and ran to her teammate. _"Liz, how is he?"_ David asked her through the radio. "Colby."

Colby groaned as he pushed himself off Jo Santiago. "Are you okay, Jo?" He asked, breathless. Jo got up slowly. The boy was shaking but he nodded. "Good."

"Are _you_ okay?" Liz asked Colby, helping him to his feet.

Colby moved his left shoulder where the bullet had impacted, grimacing at the ache there. "Yeah, it hit the vest."

"Are you sure? Let me take a look." Colby allowed her a quick look before stepping away.

"I'm okay, Liz." He reassured her. "It's just sore."

Liz was still worried but he did look fine and there wasn't any blood that she could see. "He's okay, David. It hit his vest."

* * *

David sighed in relief, then yanked Duque up. "Count yourself lucky he's alive. You wouldn't want to add cop-killer to your list of criminal activities!"

"Two years. I've been planning this for two years." He was so close to getting his revenge and the money.

"You have about 15 to 20 to come up with a new one." David shoved him out the door.

" _Try 20 to life. He tried to kill a cop."_ Liz growled through the earpiece.

* * *

Colby led Jo out of the Hall. "I'll see you guys back at the office." He winced at his shoulder as he got in the car after Jo.

"Are you okay?" The boy asked, a little worried.

Colby smiled. Jo was a brave kid. "I'll be better when I get you back to your dad." Jo was still shaken up but the grin he gave was priceless.

This was the best part of any law enforcement officer's day: seeing a child being returned to their family after a successful operation. It was why Colby wanted to be an FBI Agent, to save lives and reunite families.

Jo threw his arms around his father, "Dad, I knew you'd get me home."

Tears of relief and joy welled in Che Lobo's eyes, "You okay?" He hugged his son.

"Yeah."

"You sure?" He asked again, frantically checking Jo over.

"Yeah."

Colby stood there, watching the reunion and enjoying every moment of it. All the running, the lugging, getting shot…it was all worth it. It was a relief. Colby closed his eyes, glad the day was over. He stumbled back a little, feeling a little weak all of a sudden.

Che Lobo stepped up to him, his arms still around his son. "I know we go back to our corners tomorrow, but I owe you one. You ever need to call it in, no questions asked." Colby knew the man was talking to him but his eyes kept moving out of focus. Che Lobo saw there was something wrong. His hands flew out, grabbing him by the upper arms when Colby started swaying. "What's wrong?" He quickly took his hands back when Colby gasped in pain, grabbing his left shoulder. Colby dropped to his knees, not understanding the intense pain. He was shot in the shoulder but his vest took the damage…didn't it?

"Agent Granger!" Che Lobo got down in front of Colby. He turned Colby a little and saw the small amount of blood coming from his shoulder. "He's been shot! Call an ambulance!" One of his bodyguards got on the phone and called for a medic while Agent Andrew Jensen went to the back of the truck for the first aid kit.

"Dad? Is he going to be okay?"

Colby took slow breaths. He could he the fear in the boy's voice. "I'll be okay, buddy." He said after managing to get the pain under control. He was hoping to reassure Jo but he could tell it wasn't working.

Jensen came over with the kit. "You okay, Granger?" He knelt down on Colby's injured side and pressed a gauze pad to the shoulder wound.

Colby grunted but didn't cry out, knowing he would scare Jo. "I'm okay." He grilled through his teeth. "You're not helping."

Jensen chuckled, "Come on. It's just a scratch." He nodded at Che Lobo. "Help me get his jacket off." Colby pulled his good arm out of the sleeve with Che Lobo's help. Jensen briefly took the pressure off the wound for the music producer to peel the jacket off the injured agent. Jensen quickly unstrapped Colby's vest and hissed at all the blood soaked into Colby's shirt. He reapplied the pressure. "How the hell are you still conscious, Granger?" It was a relief when he heard the ambulance siren.

"I'm tougher than you." Colby's vision was darkening around the edges. "Isn't that right, Jo?" He gave the boy a weak smile. Jo nodded, kneeling next to his father. Colby turned his eyes onto Che Lobo. "You should take Jo inside." He could feel himself losing consciousness and didn't want to scare the boy anymore than he already did. Che Lobo nodded. "Jo, see you, bud."

"Thank you." Che Lobo said sincerely before taking his son by the hand and leading him inside the house, followed by his bodyguards. As soon as they turned their backs, Colby lost his battle with consciousness.

Jensen grunted when Colby collapsed against him. "How am I going to explain this to your team?"

* * *

Agent Jensen jumped out of his seat in the waiting room when Megan Reeves and the team arrived, along with Charlie and Amita. "What happened? Where is he?" David demanded as soon as he reached the agent.

Jensen held his hands out to stop them from jumping on him. "He's in surgery. The bullet didn't quite hit the vest. It skimmed the edge of the plate. The bullet's lodge in his shoulder blade."

"How the hell didn't we notice?" David turned to Liz. He didn't mean to accuse her but she was the closest to Colby when he got shot.

"I didn't see anything. He looked fine and he said…" Liz started feeling guilty. She should know never to listen to Colby when he says he's fine.

"It's not your fault, Liz." Megan gave her arm a squeeze while giving David a disapproving look.

David let out a breath in frustration, "I'm not blaming anyone. I just don't get how he could get shot and nobody noticed."

"I don't even think he noticed." Jensen told them. "He looked fine until we dropped the kid off. The vest kept the blood hidden. I barely saw any until I took it off."

"How the hell didn't _he_ know he got shot?!" David's voice boomed, startling everyone on the floor.

"David, calm down." Megan scolded softly. "Let's just wait until he's out of surgery."

"Doctor said he'd be fine. They just need to get the bullet out." He told them what he was told in the emergency ward.

"Thanks for staying with him, Andrew." Megan smiled at him. "Why don't you head back to the office?" Jensen nodded, leaving Colby in the hands of his team. "Hey, Andrew." Megan called when she remembered something else. "If you see Don, can you tell him we're here?"

"Sure." It was weird to see the team without their leader. Don never took a day off work.

* * *

Don looked at his watch as he headed into the FBI building. The session he had with Dr Bradford was good. He managed to talk through a lot of the stress he'd been feeling in the past months. "Agent Eppes!" Jensen had just arrived back from the hospital. He caught Don before he got in the lifts.

Don turned around, "Jensen? What's up?"

Jensen grimaced. He hated being the barer of bad news. "Granger's in the hospital." It was like he was trying to tear off a band-aid.

"What?" Don asked, shocked. "When? Where? How?!"

"They were on a case. He was running around the city and he got shot." Jensen gave the very brief version. "He's at UCLA. Agent Reeves and the rest of your team are there. He'll be okay though." Jensen added, quickly.

Don nodded. "Next time, start with that." He ran out of the office to his car, cursing himself for turning off his phone.

* * *

By the time Don got to the hospital Colby was out of surgery and in a private room, sleeping comfortably. His left arm was in a sling. The team surrounded him. Charlie and Amita were sitting on the couch. "Don." Megan walked up to him. "What happened to your phone?"

Don couldn't take his eyes off Colby. "I forgot to turn it back on. How is he?"

"Doctor says he'll be fine. He can go home after he wakes up as long as someone stays with him." Megan told him.

Don sighed, he couldn't help but think that this may not have happened if he was with his team today. "What happened?"

"We got a case. We couldn't get a hold of you so I took the lead." Megan knew this wasn't her fault but she felt like she should shoulder some of the blame. "A child was kidnapped. Colby followed the kidnapper's instructions with the ransom. The guy was good. Liz and David were made and he ordered Colby to ditch his comm." She smiled at Charlie. "We're lucky we had Charlie. He figured out the end game and we were there to back Colby up, but Duque got a shot off before we got to him." Don had to admit, it was a much better version than Jensen's but it was still too brief. He guessed he'd have to wait for the report.

"We thought the bullet hit his vest. I can't believe he tried to hide this from us." David was still frustrated with the situation.

"It was the adrenaline of the case. He was running all over the city. His adrenaline was probably off the charts." Charlie got up from the couch to defend the sleeping agent.

Amita got up with him. "I think when he said he was okay, he really thought that."

"Charlie's right, David. I was there. He didn't look like he was hiding the pain." Liz told them.

David scoffed, "Colby's good at hiding pain."

They could've kept on arguing and probably would've if Colby didn't groan. They waited impatiently as Colby tried to wake up from the anesthesia but he was taking too long for David. "Wake up!" He called, loudly.

Colby's eyes flew open, jolting awake. He groaned at the pain in his shoulder, his right hand moving to his shoulder. "What the hell, David?" He grunted as he glared at his partner who was glaring at him.

"That's what I should be asking you!" David hissed at him.

Colby sighed at David's anger, "What are you pissed about now?"

Megan and Liz couldn't help but giggle at the annoyed looks David and Colby were exchanging. They were like 11 year old brothers, arguing. "He's annoyed at you for trying to hide your injury." Megan told Colby, hoping to get an explanation from him herself.

Colby looked at her and was about to answer when he saw Don next to her. "Hey, Don. You made it." He was grinning. Clearly the painkillers were still in his system. Don nodded. He was relieved that Colby was okay but he wasn't happy about himself. Colby frowned, "What's wrong? Did something happen?" They all looked at him. Now that they weren't worried about Colby, they saw what Colby saw. Don looked...angry? Guilty?

Charlie frowned. "What's wrong, Don?"

Don shook his head. "It's nothing." He didn't want to tell the team what he was thinking. That he had let them down when they needed him most.

"If you're worried about me, I'm fine." Colby smiled at him, "Just really tired."

Don gave a half-hearted smile back, "I'm glad."

"So what happened, Colby?" Megan asked again, taking their attention off Don for now. She could see Don wasn't ready to talk to them. "You got shot and didn't tell us."

Colby looked around the room and saw that the guys weren't happy with him. It dawned on him that they all thought he was deliberately hiding the injury from them. "I really thought it hit my vest. I didn't think there was anything wrong until I got Jo back to his dad."

"Which is probably when the adrenaline wore off." Charlie held his hand out, gesturing to Colby to say the man had proven him right. "I really do believe him. Adrenaline can make people push beyond their usual limits. In this case it pushed Colby past his normal pain threshold."

"There!" Colby would've stuck his tongue out at his team if he weren't a fully-grown man. "Out of the mouth of a genius! So why don't you all do me a favour and get me out of here?"

David shook his head, all the while helping Colby up. "Sometimes I wonder why I even put up with you."

Colby sat on the side of the bed and let out a long breath. "You know you love me." He said, but his usually cheeky tone wasn't there. He's had worse injuries but this one took quite a bit out of him.

"You lost a lot of blood. It wouldn't have been so bad if you weren't trying to be mucho." David rested his hand on Colby's good shoulder.

Colby lifted his head and glared at his partner through tired eyes, "I. Didn't. Know." He thought if he spoke slowly enough he could get through to his stubborn partner. "I don't have a death wish, David."

"Could've fool me." David mumbled.

"Alright, that's it. If I have to stay with someone tonight, it better not be you." Colby let David help him off the bed, despite what he'd just said.

"Actually, why don't you stay at Charlie's? Take tomorrow off. I'll drive you home after work." Don looked at Charlie to make sure that was okay with him.

Charlie nodded, "Yeah, that's fine with me. Dad will be home so if you need anything just ask him."

"Guys, it's a shoulder wound…woah!" Colby stumbled back at the sudden dizzy spell. David grabbed his good arm, stopping him from toppling over and making a fool of himself.

"It's also blood loss, Colby." Liz told him. "Plus the pain meds. The doctor wants you monitored for a day or two. At least until you stop feeling faint."

Colby groaned, "Fine. Where are my clothes?"

* * *

Don and Charlie waited outside with the girls while David stayed inside to make sure Colby didn't fall over. Don smiled at Megan who looked worried about him. "Good job today." He said before she could ask him anything.

Megan smiled, "Thank you. It got a little hectic," she nodded thoughtfully, "but I think we did alright."

Liz nodded, agreeing, "Yeah…we did do pretty well even without the Great Don Eppes." She joked, making everyone laugh. Don smiled but he couldn't bring himself to laugh with them. Liz put a gentle hand on Don's arm. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Don told her. "Just a long day." She nodded but Don could tell she wasn't buying it. He was saved from saying anymore because Colby came out of the room fully dressed in his jeans and a spare FBI t-shirt. "My car's out front." He told them, leading the way.

* * *

Colby gingerly lowered himself onto the couch. It was just Don and himself. Charlie had to drop off Amita first. Colby hung his head back against the back of the couch. The short ride here was more tiring than he cared to admit.

Don put a glass of water and his bottle of pain meds on the table. "This is for later."

Colby opened his eyes and smiled, "Thanks, Don." He frowned when Don sat down in the armchair next to the couch, looking more tired than he was. "What wrong?"

Don looked at him and forced himself to smile, "Nothing. You should go to sleep."

"I'm fine. You look worse than me." Colby insisted. "You've been weird since I woke up. What's bothering you?"

Don sighed, "You mean aside from you getting shot?"

"Don, I'm FBI. I'm going to get shot at some point in my career." Colby said, amused, "If you're going to be like this every time one of us gets shot, you're going to get a lot of frown lines."

"It's not just that." Don rubbed his eyes in frustration, "I turned my phone off!"

"I'm sure you had your reasons."

"You guys had to work on a case without me! I'm supposed to be there to watch you backs and make the calls! I'm your boss, that's my job!" Don let out his frustrations.

"And you're damn good at it. That's why we were able to do this without you today." Colby grinned at the confused look Don gave him. "You should've seen Megan. Che Lobo refused to let us help him and then he had one conversation with Megan and the gates were opened. She led this case like a pro."

"Yeah?" Don smiled, glad the team did well without him, but it was sad as well. His team didn't need him. Dr Bradford and he had talked about this. This was supposed to be a good thing.

"Yeah and where do you think she learned that from?" It was like Colby knew what he was thinking. "You're good at your job, Don. I've learned a lot from you. We all have but we can't depend on you. You taught us how to do our job and today we've proven that we're damn good at it." Don chuckled at that. "And it's because of you." Colby smiled, a little sadly. He knew this team wouldn't be lasting much longer for him but he counted himself lucky because he learned so much from this man and his team. He had an urge to tell Don the truth about his placement on his team but he couldn't. "As long as I'm an FBI Agent, I don't think there will be a time when I don't turn to you for advice."

Don was in awe of how open Colby was being. There was a lot he could learn from him as well. "I have a feeling you'd be doing this job long after I'm done with it, Colb. You're really good at it."

Colby nodded. "Thanks." He hoped so.

"You should sleep. You're tired enough without me heaping all my crap on you." Don helped him to lie down, careful of his shoulder.

Colby's eyes started falling shut as soon as his head hit the pillow, but he still had one more thing he needed to say. "I trust you, Don. You know that, right?"

Don frowned, a little amused, "Yeah, Colby, of course I do. I trust you too."

Colby smiled sleepily. "Okay." He mumbled and then he was out like a light. Don wondered what that was all about. He didn't know that in a few months his team would be facing the toughest test of their careers.

 **The end.**


End file.
